158 Life and Love. 



in enfeebled or defective offspring, and these 

 being unable to perform the arduous necessities 

 of life, their family may die out. 



In animal life, as in other forms of motion, the 

 equilibrium must not become stable, or else motion 

 ceases. Cessation of motion in living matter 

 means death. 



So the higher life has pursued its remarkable 

 upward career by virtue of having established 

 methods for securing variation. 



The most important and effective cause of varia- 

 tion is the production of offspring from the union 

 of two. For instance, instead of having one grand- 

 parent, the creature which is the result of sexual 

 reproduction has four. That is, from four imme- 

 diate different sources has come vital power and 

 variability to the individual. 



To appreciate the meaning of sexual reproduc- 

 tion, look back along the ancestral line for twenty 

 generations. If there was but one parent, in 

 twenty generations there would be but twenty 

 ancestors — but twenty individuals from whom to 

 inherit possibilities. No, not twenty, only one. 

 For all these twenty ancestors would be but con- 

 tinuing divisions of the same individual, so the 

 same characteristics would be repeated over and 

 over again, the final descendant differing from the 

 first only in so far as the natural tendency to vary, 

 which seems inherent in all life, had triumphed. 



Where there are two parents, how great is the 

 difference ! 



